Samsung’s 2025 QD-OLED Panel: Brighter, Smarter, More Colorful
Samsung Display has announced a new QD-OLED panel for its 2025 TVs. This panel offers a 30% increase in brightness compared to last year’s model. It can reach peak brightness levels above 4,000 nits.
Samsung’s QD-OLED Will Be the Brightest Display Yet
Samsung Display, which produces QD-OLED panels for Samsung Electronics and Sony TVs, has announced its latest innovation ahead of CES 2025.
The new QD-OLEDs rank among the brightest OLED panels currently available. Enhanced organic materials and refined control technologies deliver richer and more vibrant colors.
Samsung’s panels utilize individual red, green, and blue subpixels for improved color saturation. In contrast, competitor LG Display boosts brightness in its WOLED panels by using white subpixels.
At CES 2025, Samsung Display will showcase a 77-inch prototype featuring the new panel, which achieves peak brightness above 4,000 nits—approximately 30% brighter than previous-generation SDC models.
The new QD-OLED panel is expected to debut in consumer products later this year, including the Samsung S95F. Samsung also plans to introduce its first 83-inch QD-OLED TV in 2025.
While the panel itself reaches over 4,000 nits, actual TV brightness may vary depending on implementation. For example, the 2024 S95D was rated at 3,000 nits on paper but reached just 1,600 nits in calibrated mode.
History of QD-OLED
QD-OLED is a hybrid display technology that combines organic LEDs with quantum dots.
Confusion among consumers regarding display terminology led to the emergence of this new format, branded as QD-OLED.
Samsung Display has renewed its focus on OLED for televisions by integrating quantum dots with organic light-emitting diodes. The goal was to overcome many limitations of conventional OLED panels.
How It Works
To understand how QD-OLED displays function, it’s helpful to first review OLED and QLED technologies.
OLED
OLED panels feature self-emissive pixels, eliminating the need for a separate backlight. Each pixel produces its own light and can be individually dimmed or turned off, enabling exceptional contrast and true black levels—a hallmark of OLED technology.
QLED
QLED is an advanced form of LCD. It uses a blue LED backlight and a layer of quantum dots to produce red and green light. This results in more vivid and pure RGB colors. Unlike OLED, QLED relies on a backlight, which limits black level performance and overall contrast.
Samsung revealed its 2025 TV lineup at CES, but the release dates for individual models are still pending.
QD-OLED
QD-OLED merges elements of both technologies. It uses blue organic LEDs as a light source. A quantum dot layer converts portions of the blue light into red and green, enhancing brightness and color accuracy without the need for traditional color filters.
QD-OLED Pros and Cons: What You Need to Know
QD-OLED displays combine the key benefits of conventional OLED and Quantum Dot technologies.
• They retain OLED’s hallmark deep blacks and wide viewing angles. Gamers will appreciate the ultra-fast response time of up to 0.1 ms and a 120 Hz refresh rate.
• Replacing traditional color filters with quantum dots has significantly boosted peak brightness, improving HDR performance.
• Quantum Dot technology also enables accurate color reproduction and a broad color gamut—covering 123% of the DCI-P3 space and over 90% of BT.2020, according to manufacturers.
• These features contribute to a remarkable contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.
However, QD-OLED does have a few drawbacks:
• One potential issue—possibly related to the triangular subpixel layout—is slight color distortion around high-contrast edges. This effect is subjective and may vary depending on individual perception; some users notice it instantly, while others may not detect it at all.
F.A.Q.
What are the advantages of QD-OLED?
QD-OLED panels deliver the deep black color and excellent viewing angles inherited from OLED. They also feature high peak brightness (over 4000 nits in the new 2025 models), improved color reproduction, and wide color gamut (over 123% DCI-P3 and over 90% BT.2020). Fast response (down to 0.1ms) and 120Hz refresh rate make them attractive to gamers.
What are the disadvantages of QD-OLED?
A disadvantage may be a slight color distortion on contrast edges due to the triangular arrangement of subpixels. This is subjective and depends on the user's perception.
How bright are Samsung’s new 2025 QD-OLED panels?
Samsung claims a peak brightness of over 4000 nits, which is 30% more than last year's models. However, it should be noted that the claimed brightness may differ from the actual brightness in calibrated modes.
Which Samsung TVs will use the new QD-OLED panel?
The new panel will be unveiled at CES 2025 and will at least be used in Samsung's S95F model. Samsung also plans to release the first 83-inch QD-OLED TV in 2025.
